Four Graces Estate Pinot Blanc 2019

Driving into the little town of Dundee in Oregon on 99W is quite the trip. The town is home to only a few hundred people, yet some of the commercial addresses are the most famous and sought after names in Oregon wine. Antica Terra, Erath, Evening Land, Four Graces, and Purple Hands are some of the big names that call Dundee home.

But my favorite to visit by far is Four Graces. It’s one of the absolute best places in Oregon to have a glass of wine. An old converted barn is the centerpiece for the tasting experience which overlooks one of the estate vineyards. The people are down to earth, the tasting is relaxed and affordable, and the wines are out of this world.

If you ever visit, and I strongly suggest you do, the 4-time Top 100 Wine Spectator wine of the year winners will pour you their estate Pinot Blanc – a super vibrant, tangy and steely white wine that they ferment in a giant stainless tank. The wine has found itself on the top 100 list before. Today’s wine from the 2019 vintage didn’t earn those honors, but did receive two rave 90-point reviews. At the price, there’s nothing remotely close in domestic white wines.

2019 has a real chance of being considered Oregon’s greatest ever vintage, and that’s a distinction that is shared for both red and white wines. With an ideally wet spring, followed by warm but not super hot, and consistently dry conditions through harvest, the purity of the fruit and the size of the healthy clusters is a sight to behold.